The American Tapestry Alliance has an Unjuried Small Format show every other year which is usually in conjunction with Handweaver’s Guild of America’s conference, Convergence.

This year, as expected, the show has been taken online. You can view the entire show and order a catalog here. All weavings are restricted to no larger than 10” by 10” in measurement. Something to keep in mind as you look at each of the images here. Some are even smaller!

Going down the list of entries, the first one that caught my eye was “Squaring the Circle” by Lynn Cornelius. I was so struck by it, I kept going back to look at it again and again. So I wrote and asked Lynn to tell me more about it. She told me it was woven at 10 ends per inch with her own hand-dyed 3/2 Perle cotton along with finer silk and bamboo. The dimensions are 10” by 10”. You can see more of Lynn’s work here.

As I found myself making note of more and more tapestries and artists I wanted to look up, I decided to write this post. It may well become the first of a series of posts focusing on different design features - but for now - it’s in the details.

Sally Reckert’s piece struck a different kind of chord with me. I just kept going back to this one, too. Here’s what Sally had to say about this piece:

The work that I sent into Renditions is a maquette for a larger piece that I might weave (approximately 1m sq). I find that unjuried/juried formats are useful for making me see a piece through to completion rather than simply experiment.
Sett was 6 epi using 6s medium cotton from Weavers Bazaar. Size is 10 x 7 inches.
Materials are eclectic ranging from dyed nettle through ramie, cottolin, worsted wool, newspaper, silk, linen, acrylic, Herdwick and Blue-faced Leicester.
Why so many yarns? For texture and emotional contrast and because I’m a magpie when it comes to yarn, ie:
The bright nettle and acrylic were for used for the shoppers who either can’t or choose not to see the homeless.
The Herdwick sheep is from Cumbria, not far from where I live in the Northern Pennine dales of England. I used their yarn for the pavement and road surface outside the shop, they are made from river cobbles, hard wearing like the yarn.
The figures are all real people who I regularly sketched outside the Coop from a vantage point of an outdoor cafe opposite the shop. I wanted to keep soft, human outlines for the homeless to convey that they are real people with real feelings. The other shoppers are semi-abstract figures, they could be anyone.
I decided that a winter’s day would suit the subject, indoors is warm and inviting. I have to use a different yarn for the soldiers as the blue and brown doesn’t show well being too close to the street colouring. For the large weaving I’ll use spun newspaper. Newspaper is used by street people for its insulating properties - pavements are cold places to sit or sleep on. The plight of the homeless hardly features in the press, and it should.

Marlena Rogers’ weaving was woven with 2 strands of Weavers Bazaar medium yarn, small bits of silk and jute fiber sett at 12 epi. The warp is cotton seine twine. Size is approx. 8 x 10 inches.

She shared this about her piece:

The weaving was my rendition of life as it’s still being lived by millions of people in Africa - where providing for the basic sustenance of their family is the overriding concern and focus of most women, who will travel many miles on foot carrying heavy burdens to provide for their daily needs.

Both Sally and Marlena exhibited in the Rebecca Mezoff’s Tapestry School group. Check out the rest of the pieces here.

I’ve often been struck by the impressionistic qualities of Kathy Spoering’s tapestries. And the detail she accomplishes in them. This one is 8 x 10 inches, at a set of 10 epi. She says:

The weft is mostly two strands of blended Spelsau wool, with single strands used occasionally in tight spaces, because, as you can see, there are a lot of tiny spots making up the image. I find I delight in weaving an abstracted impressionistic way - the fiddlier, the better! It takes me completely away from the troublesome world!
This tapestry is a quarantine tapestry. Just as the virus hit, we got 2 kittens (under the influence of grandchildren.) These 2, Ringo and Poe, have been our quarantine companions and entertainment. They keep a look on the world from inside, mostly from the second floor window in either the sitting room or my studio, and we have joined them in that limited outlook.

To see more of Kathy’s works, visit her website, blog, or instagram.

Patti Kirch’s weaving is 7" wide x 9" high and woven with wool warp and weft. Patti is another artist I’ve been following for some time. Here’s what she had to say about her piece:

Family Love, Winter Wedding in the Canadian Rockies, my twin daughters; Natalie and Alex's wedding and Nicole and Ted with baby Ripley. This was definitely a magical moment, and a little whimsey with hearts and orange shoes, hands and hat.

You can see more of Patti’s work on Instagram and also her ATA Artist Page.

Janet Dorow, “Jemima PuddleDuck and Fox”

Janet Dorow’s piece is part of an enchanting group of works by the Damascas Fiber Arts School. It just makes me smile. Check out their other entries. Their challenge was Childhood Tales and Songs. Sure to make you smile, too.

This is what Janet had to say about her piece:

I started learning tapestry weaving at Damascus Fiber Arts School in Damascus, Oregon in the fall of 2009. I have no art background and feel that lack continues to hold me back. Still, I’ve kept on and really enjoy it. I belong to the Willamette Tapestry Artists group that has an upcoming website. I don’t have the exact measurements of Jemima Puddleduck and The Fox but it is probably 8.5 X 9.5. It was woven on its side (warps hang horizontally) with seine twine warp and Jaggerspun MaineLine weft.

Of course, there’s one tapestry artist that always comes up when we think of Small Format Tapestries, and that’s Kathe Todd- Hooker. Talk about detail!

She says…

The piece is 22 epi, roughly 5 inches by 7.5 inches- embroidery floss and lunatic fringe singles… The words and design are an expression of our times! I was also testing out one of my small looms which is really too small for my weavings —well-really— the size of my hands and movement. I allowed it to do what it wanted without a whole lot of correction as it wrapped around the loom.

Kathe can be found in numerous tapestry groups on facebook as well as her own website.

A special thank you to all of the artists featured here that were willing to share some notes on their tapestries. I hope you’ve enjoyed exploring them further as much as I have.

There are many others I could include here; as I said in the beginning, this could easily become a series!

Note: I’ve only included those that resonated with me on first look through and responded when I asked permission to post their work. There are many other gems. Do go look at all the pieces!

Feel welcome to post in the comments - or email me - any others you’d like to know more about or see featured in upcoming posts.

Update: part two of this series can be found here: Texture and Movement

Part three: Weaving for the Environment and Little Blocks of Color

and Part Four: Beautifully Rendered

Renditions 2020: It's in the Details!